Time is of the Essence: Keep customers waiting at your peril

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Today’s consumer is busier than ever. Digital technology hasn’t just made instant communication possible, consumers have come to expect it.Time is of the Essence: Keep customers waiting at your peril

This new but rapidly proliferating expectation of ‘always-on’ support — particularly from tech companies — has businesses scrambling to find ways to meet it.

Artificially intelligent automation could help provide this level of customer support, as long as it’s executed well.

If there’s one thing for sure, the companies that find a way to deliver quality support to their customers 24/7 will reap the benefits.

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7 Things Great Call Center Managers do Every Day

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call-center-managementtips-minUPDATED FEBRUARY 2020:

The call center is an extremely stressful work environment. Simply knowing how to run a call center isn’t enough for success.

Not for the weak at heart, only some call center managers have the grace, tenacity, and skills to handle the extreme pressures of the contact center manager’s job.

Those with this special ability often create an experience that pleases customers and agents, without exceeding their budgets; a truly remarkable feat.

Below we look into some of the things call center managers must do every day to be successful, along with tips on how to execute them

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The State of the Contact Center in 2020 | Peter Ryan Interview

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state of the contact center - peter ryan videoA few weeks ago, our CEO, Shai Berger, sat down with Peter Ryan, Principal Analyst and Founder of Ryan Strategic Advisory, to discuss the state of the contact center going into the new decade, and how the industry is expected to develop in the coming years.

In it, we discuss:

  • Why voice is the most omnipresent channel and will remain so for years to come
  • If the utility of chatbots has been overstated and why they won’t replace humans
  • The real reason why companies are investing more in their contact centers
  • A major problem with ‘AI’ in the call center today, and how smart AI providers can position for success
  • The truth about call center outsourcing and why most people are wrong about it, and
  • Why clever companies are spending more developing human talent than technology.

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The Top Customer Service SMS Do’s and Don’ts

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The Top Customer Service SMS MMS Dos and Don'ts - Fonolo Call Center BlogIt’s no secret that next-gen consumers like to text with friends and even family rather than phone them. At Fonolo, we’ve been wary of reading too much into channel preference data and cohort studies, but there is no denying that SMS is becoming a more significant part of customer service interactions. In fact, by 2020, around 50 million consumers will opt-in to receive business SMS. According to CTIA, there were 1.5 trillion text messages sent in 2017 alone.

While consumer-to-consumer SMS is already ubiquitous, the medium is gaining rapid popularity for B2C and B2B interactions, including for customer service. Businesses are getting the message, pun intended, and are starting to engage and serve customers through this channel. Despite the popularity, SMS remains a relatively new domain where the dos and don’ts for its success are just beginning to emerge.

To help you keep any SMS faux-pas to a limit, we’ve put together these five customer service messaging do’s and don’ts.

 

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5 Customer Service Tips That Will Help You Retain More Customers

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5 customer service tips that will help you retain more customers - Fonolo call center blog

Guest Author: Scott Miraglia, CEO, Elevation Marketing

Customer service isn’t just a buzzword. When done right, it works to attract, retain, and convert more customers. 90% of Americans view customer service as a signal to determine if they should do business with a company.

Additionally, nearly half of Americans switch to a new company after having a poor experience with a vendor.

This is why focusing on enhancing and improving the customer experience for your prospects and clients should be a key component of your lead generation strategy.

In this post, we’ll provide five tips meant to help you bump your customer service offerings to the next level.  Continue reading →

How to Eliminate Hold Time in Your Call Center

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How Can a Call Center Eliminate Hold Time - Fonolo Call Center Blog

UPDATED: January 2020

The best way for a call center to stand out as a leader is through the customer experience. It’s no surprise that an exceptional experience leads to more satisfied consumers, who continue to spend more money.

Most callers will begin subconsciously rating their customer experience from the beginning of the interaction, regardless of the channel; phone, web, social media, or mobile app.

Omnichannel customer service isn’t just about having multiple support options; it’s about delivering exceptional service on a channel that YOUR customers find most convenient.

Are you making them wait when they most need to speak to you?

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Fonolo Saves Consumers 28 Million Minutes of Hold Time

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Fonolo Saves Consumers 28 Million Minutes of Hold Time - Fonolo Call Center BlogMany will look at 2019 as a mixed year, one of both wins and losses, and lots of little changes – almost all of them for the better.

But all those little changes add up to something bigger, and it’s easy to forget how far you can leap in a year. We did the math this month, and the results are in: We saved North American consumers from more than 53 years of hold time in 2019. That amounts to a staggering 28 million minutes.

That’s just one win among many for the call-back solution that could. This week, we’re looking back at 2019 and the things that helped us move forward and grow as a company last year. Continue reading →

How to Effectively Set Goals with Your Call Center Employees

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Updated: January 2020

How to Effectively Set Goals with Your Call Center Team header imageGoal setting and self-improvement often go hand-in-hand, and nowhere is this truer than in the call center world.

Executives and managers understand that by setting goals both as an organization — particularly as departments and teams — a company is able to move in a measurable way, and even pivot in the direction they want to grow.

Developing clear and structured goals with your customer service reps is essential for you to be able to do this in your contact center.  Using the S.M.A.R.T strategy in the goal-setting process will provide direction, focus, and help prioritize your call center team’s time and energy. 

In a busy and bustling customer service department, having an agreed-upon set of milestones to guide productivity will help guide decisions, keep morale up, and even reduce agent turnover.

Here are some keys ways to work together as a team to create practical customer service team goals that will take your call center to the next level.

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25+ Top Customer Service Conferences to Attend in 2020

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The Top Customer Service Conferences to Attend in 2020 img5

Wondering what customer service or contact center conference to attend in 2020? We’ve got you covered.

Whatever anyone says, attending live events is essential if you want to keep up and keep involved with the industry around.

Not only is it a chance to find out what everyone is working on — and hopefully pick up some tips — but it’s also a chance to meet with our peers. And you shouldn’t underestimate how important that part is.

Particularly in an industry like customer support, it’s so important to be around people who are working on the same things and can understand what it’s like to be in our shoes. It’s fun, educational, and a great opportunity to build new relationships.

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Introducing The Crunch: Putting Out Big Customer Service Fires in 2020

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Technology News of the Week 2020 - Fonolo Call Center BlogHappy 2020, Fonolo Followers!

Welcome to The Crunch, our *new* biweekly news roundup, where we give you the latest and greatest in customer service technology, news, and views. If you want to see these saying ‘Hello’ in your inbox this year, you can subscribe here. No fear. Let’s stop rhyming now and turn to the news at hand.

As always, the customer service space reads like a riveting novel, full of conflict, drama, beauty, disappointment, hope, taxes, unanswered phonecalls, and robots.

This week, we’ve noted some storylines that we think you should note, too. Continue reading →

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